Prosthetic or artificial limbs have been designed in many ways, and each way is calculated to simulate more closely the motion of a natural limb. However, at times, this appears to be an impossibility because of the many functions our Great Creator compacted within a relatively small package. Therefore, man can only hope to approach the function of the natural limb. Although U.S. Pat. No. 3,723,997 teaches a useful method of providing braking action within an artificial knee, like all human endeavors, these teachings could also stand improvement. One drawback of the prior art is that the mechanism is relatively noisy because "play" is required between moving parts to allow relatively free motion, when braking is not required. Also, separate additional elements are provided to adjust drag.